This application claims the priority of German patent application number 196 42 834.3, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to an instrument cluster, and more particularly to an instrument cluster with a housing part that has a front frame and a surround located in front of the frame, with the instrument mechanisms and the front cover being contained in the front frame.
An instrument cluster of the type generally described above is known from German patent document DE 43 43 201 A1, that consists of a housing rear part and a housing front part, said parts being assembled and accepting the instrument mechanisms, with the rear part of the housing being placed on a diagonal instrument panel. The front part of the housing has a front frame with a surround located in front of said frame, and forms a one-piece component in which the front frame has a tube on the back to receive the instrument mechanisms. At a distance from the front surface of the surround, the front frame has an internal projection on which a cover plate is mounted, said plate being fastened by welding or gluing or being encapsulated by injection molding as an insert when making the front part of the housing in one workstep.
An instrument cluster is also known from German patent document DE 33 46 370 A1, in which the display area extends at a distance from the front of the instrument panel and therefore follows a path that differs from the path of the instrument panel, namely diagonally and vertically. Beginning at this display area, a housing part of the instrument cluster that acts as a surround projects forward in this instrument cluster, with the front surface of this forwardly extending housing part conforming to the path of the instrument panel. The front area of the housing of the instrument cluster that acts as a surround is made integral with the rest of the housing part.
Vehicles are known in which the instrument panel does not have a path that is symmetric as viewed across the width of the vehicle, but the path is asymmetric. The instrument cluster located in the vicinity of the driver's seat must conform to this path as well.
As a result, an instrument cluster designed for a vehicle with left-hand drive cannot be used for vehicles with right-hand drive and vice versa. Thus, in such cases of asymmetric instrument panels, adaptation to these two types of vehicle is only possible at the considerable expense of providing completely different instrument clusters. This results in considerable cost as well as a considerable investment in logistics and warehousing.
Thus, there is a need for an instrument cluster with a surround located in front of a display field, which can be adapted to an instrument panel having an asymmetric pattern in both of a vehicle with left-hand drive and a vehicle with right-hand drive, at a relatively minor cost of adaptation.
This and other needs have been met according to the present invention by providing an instrument cluster comprising a housing part having a front frame and a surround located in front of the frame, with instrument mechanisms and a front cover being contained in the front frame, wherein a front surface of the front frame extends within a plane, the surround being an independent part that can be releasably mounted on the front frame and having a front surface that conforms to a surface of an instrument panel, the surround having a back surface facing the front frame, the back surface extending within a plane at least essentially parallel to the front surface of the front frame.
Since the surround constitutes an independent component that is removably mountable on the remaining part of the instrument cluster, when the instrument panel has an asymmetric pattern, only one suitably designed surround is required in order to be able to use the instrument cluster for both vehicles with left-hand drive and those with right-hand drive. The actual instrument part with a display field and individual instruments can be used as a neutral component in both versions. This results in a cost reduction, especially in the expense and effort devoted to logistics and warehousing.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.